RESEARCH NEEDS FOR A

FUTURE FOOD SYSTEM John Bassett

Policy and Scientific Development Director, IFST

SFN Launch meeting 28 June 2017

PRESENTATION OVERVIEW

●About IFST

● Research needs – BBSRC

● Research needs – Innovate UK

ABOUT IFST

UK’s leading professional membership body

recognising and supporting those involved in all

aspects of food science and technology.

As a registered charity, we are independent of

government, industry, lobby or special interest groups

OUR MISSION

Setting and recognising professional standards

Delivering an independent voice

Providing an accessible knowledge base

Supporting the future of food

IFST promotes cutting edge research and technologies as

well as the latest news and articles.

PUBLICATIONS

NEW!

IFST Food

System

Sustainability

Framework

RESEARCH NEEDS - DRINC

● Diet and Health Research Industry Club (DRINC) BBSRC, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Economic

and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Medical Research Council (MRC), and a consortium

of food and drink companies.

● Research priorities - relationship between diet and health: • Designing foods to maintain and improve health

• Understanding the relationship between food processing and nutrition

• Understanding food choice and eating behaviour to improve health

through diet

● Also Crop, Sustainable Ag, other clubs

RESEARCH NEEDS - DRINC ● Gut flora – understanding interactions (intra, inter) and

relationship with health – pro-and pre-biotics, optimising

delivery and efficacy

● New food compositions and processes, new protein

sources

● Relationships between genes, diet and health, food

selection – optimising biological outcomes

RESEARCH NEEDS

- INNOVATE UK

A pre-competitive vision

for the food industry:

Top 10 Pre-competitive

areas where research is

needed

FOOD SAFETY

● Detection e.g. microbes, chemicals, foreign materials in

‘real time’ systems (Cobalt Light Systems?)

● Development of new antimicrobials/antibiotics

● Hygienic design of manufacturing plant and equipment

(ISIS - train wheels/Harwell imaging with Tata?)

● Data/modelling in the food SC for holistic food safety

management (including traceability and authenticity) (HPC?)

TRACEABILITY + AUTHENTICITY

● Characterisation of raw materials, to support verification

and safety (growing location, chemicals,, allergens etc)

● Tracking raw materials in real time through the supply

chain to prevent fraud

NEXT GENERATION RETAIL

● How to provide healthy personalised low cost food,

assembled and delivered in a complex supply chain

NEW + SMARTER INGREDIENTS

● Clear understanding of the interaction between functional

properties and process requirements

● New delivery systems that offer improved bioavailability

and taste/ flavour sensations

SMARTER PACKAGING

● Smart materials that react to stimuli (e.g. environmental

conditions) and adjust their protective functions

accordingly

● Smart sensors for product spoilage, measuring changes in

critical attributes of the product, e.g. microbial activity,

necrosis by-products, pH, oxygen levels, CO2 levels etc

(authenticity, safety/quality assurances and tamper evidence)

HEALTH + WELLBEING THROUGH DIET ● Enhancing bioavailability of key dietary components using the

physical structure of food including targeting to different regions

of the digestive tract

● Enhanced nutritional density and quality of processed foods

● Fabricated foods with all the benefits associated with fruit and

vegetables e.g. structure, bioactives etc

● Develop predictive models of the link between nutrition and

health status

MANUFACTURING FOR THE FUTURE

● New technologies to transform ingredients into foods

● Sensors/measurement systems to automate, optimise

factory and supplier processes

● Smaller, more agile and flexible manufacturing to support

resource savings, personalisation and distributed

manufacturing.

WASTE, WATER + ENERGY

● Solutions for turning current waste streams into useful

cost neutral, or higher value, commodities

● Improve resource efficiency (water and energy) with

reduced greenhouse gas emissions in food processing

SUMMARY ● Think Sustainability

Resource reduction and re-use - materials, water, energy

● Think Health (and Disease prevention) Microbial human interactions (good and bad), detection and

management of unwanted hazards and spoilage, nutritional

availability and modelling of health outcomes

● Think Innovation Smart food safety management systems, new factory designs

and processes, data management and a connected supply chain

THANK YOU